International Ecommerce Strategy: New Tools to Simplify Global Growth for High-Volume Businesses

Expanding your brand across the world is one of the biggest opportunities you’ve likely ever faced.

While the potential for accelerated growth and lucrative financial rewards are exponential, scaling globally is also fraught with complexity that can result in costly missteps that stunt growth and can cause you to second guess your global growth strategy.

“Going global is the key to growth for high volume merchants,” says Christina Lord, Global Product Marketing Manager at Shopify Plus. But expansion exposes you to many complexities in operations and technology. Simple platform solutions are hard to come by.”

That was the message delivered at Unite 2018, Shopify’s third annual partner and developer conference.

While international ecommerce is a multi-trillion dollar opportunity, it’s one you’ll only be able to successfully tap with a platform that has a global-first mindset.

We’re aggressively working to simplify international ecommerce for merchants who are expanding their businesses.

Global Growing Pains

Whether you’re simply dipping your toes into international markets similar to your native market or those you perceive as safe, narrowly targeting new markets by experimenting with country-specific strategies and campaigns, or have a significant global footprint that is centrally managed and requires local currencies, products, and payment methods …

Your vision of scaling globally can result in reliance on third-party solutions that offer a less than ideal customer experience:

International customers faced with higher shipping rates from merchants who ship globally but from just one location are more likely to abandon cart and cost you sales

Currency conversion apps that assist in localizing international customer experiences but can at times surprise customers with extra charges and negatively impact loyalty and retention

Third party multi-language apps that help you better connect with international customers but can negatively impact page performance and often do not allow you to customize the checkout experience with branding or automated discounts

Fortunately, another message emerged at Unite 2018: going global has never been easier with Shopify Plus.

Making International Ecommerce Easier

At Unite 2018, we announced new products that will not only make it easier for you to transact around the world but also to offer international customers the hyper-local buying experience they’ve come to expect.

We’re proud to be giving you the power to create local experiences that scale from a one-store solution to a host of expansion stores.

On the Unite 2018 stage and in front of hundreds of partners, David Cameron, Global Product Manager at Shopify Plus, delivered an inspiring checklist of goals his team is currently working to achieve on behalf of merchants with global growth initiatives:

“Our goal is to build products to expand your reach as a merchant. We want to make it easier for you to target and sell everywhere your buyers are. We want to help you cut out some of your overhead so you can have centralized operations that work for you.

“We want to create an integrated experience across our platform so you can grow securely and confidently. We want to do all these things while giving you the flexibility to choose your path to global expansion.”

With that, we’re excited to announce two new international ecommerce tools you’ll soon be able to use to grow your business globally by providing customers with the preferred currency and payment method they deserve and expect:

Multi-Currency for Shopify Payments

With Multi-currency for Shopify Payments, you’ll soon be able to grow globally by acting locally. Importantly, the new multi-currency capabilities allow merchants to start with a global mindset by easily selling in local currencies and settling in their preferred currency.

In addition to managing it all in one place, Shopify’s multi-currency positions you to offer customer-friendly international storefronts and checkout experiences.

Powered by Shopify Payments, multi-currency positions brands to improve their performance internationally in three ways:

1. Experiment with Growth

It will be easier and faster than ever to expand your reach and develop a global-first mindset with a multi-currency offering.

Importantly, multi-currency offers the flexibility you need to make decisions — and quickly change them — on a country-by-country basis and as the dynamics of specific international markets change.

You can go live in new international markets in just minutes with multi-currency and select only the currencies you wish to sell in.

Change your mind or see a new opportunity? No problem. Shopify’s multi-currency allows you to easily add or remove currencies based on market changes.

2. Localize Experiences

When in Rome … act like a Roman, right?

You will be able offer customers across the world a more custom experience regardless of where your brand is headquartered.

Shopify’s multi-currency will have powerful built-in geolocation functionality that allows you to show customers local currency prices based on current foreign exchange rates that are rounded for stability.

3. Integrated Solution

It’s easier to scale internationally now that you have an integrated solution that seamlessly weaves multi-currency throughout the Shopify Plus experience.

From product creation to payout reconciliation, Shopify’s multi-currency will provide a consistent experience so you can sell internationally with confidence.

Today, offering customers a robust multi-currency experience is not a luxury but rather a necessity. This reality becomes starkly clear when you consider the following data:

92% of shoppers prefer to make purchases in their local currency

33% are likely to abandon a purchase if pricing is in USD only

Shopify’s multi-currency provides a consistent experience so merchants can sell internationally with confidence.

From product creation to payout reconciliation, merchants will see the proper currency presented across Shopify so they don't need to worry about reporting inconsistencies or inaccuracies.

Multi-currency launches this Fall starting with businesses on Shopify Plus that are using Shopify Payments. It will start by supporting selling in the following currencies: AUD, EUR, JPY, SGD, USD, CAD, HKD, NZD, and GBP.

Local Payment Methods for Shopify Payments

Successfully scaling globally means checking what you think you know and constantly reminding yourself that what works in one country may not work in another.

There are hundreds, even thousands of local payment methods across the globe. Each one is tailored to a specific audience, with a specific purpose in mind.

The payment methods you prefer may not be what your international customer prefer.

With this in mind, it’s important to intimately understand how customers in new markets like to pay for the items they purchase. For instance, while credit cards are wildly popular in North America, they’re not used nearly as much by online shoppers elsewhere:

In Germany, credit cards make up just 22% of online transactions, and payments from bank accounts make up more than 40% of spending

In the Netherlands, iDEAL, a direct banking app that touches all the major banks, represents more than half of all online spending

Payment methods can quickly become an intrinsic part of a country’s culture. To scale internationally you must offer your customers the payment methods they prefer. It’s why we’re excited to announce that this year, we’re bringing Local payment methods to Shopify Payments.

Ultimately, we’re going to simplify the complexity of global payments so that merchants can sell more, while spending less time trying to navigate this complex landscape.

With local payment methods, you’ll be positioned to increase global sales by allowing your customers to pay in a way they are accustomed to and trust:

Initially, you’ll be able to offer some of the most popular local payment methods in Western Europe with more to come as we expand to additional international markets

Automatically surface the best payment method based on a customer’s location

Increase international conversion rates and easily turn specific payment methods on or off based on strategy or market changes

Your Global Future

With multi-currency and local payment methods, we’ve made it easier to scale internationally. However, as excited as we are to announce these resources, we know there’s a lot of work left to do to further simplify your global growth initiatives.

“There is no silver bullet solution for making going global easy,” says David Cameron, Global Product Manager at Shopify Plus. “There is a lot of work to be done to simplify the process of going global while still allowing you the flexibility you need to run your business. We’re going to continue investing in the capabilities the platform needs to help you grow globally.”

Today’s announcements are just the latest steps we’ve taken to help you achieve your international ecommerce objectives. We’re already building on what we’ve announced at Unite 2018 and have identified new challenges to address.